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Some said they saw it coming, but when ProDesign made the announcement in May that it would be closing its pages for good, it was a sad occasion for many. But at the end of the day, revenue is king and AGM opted to channel its energy and money to the more lucrative interior design sector, with ProDesign editor Michael Barrett taking the reins of the new venture. Last week the fruits of Barrett’s labour were displayed for all to see when AGM launched new magazine Interior.

The magazine targets design professionals and focuses on interior architecture and design across office, workplace, corporate, retail, hospitality, education, public and other interior commercial environments. Barrett says the magazine will not feature interior design from the residential sector.

With the last issue of ProDesign going out in May, Barrett says the team worked to a ”fairly tight timeline” to get the debut issue of Interior out, the results of which were celebrated at the launch event in the newly refurbished Auckland Art Gallery.

In a room filled with interior design stakeholders, Barrett says there was not a soul mourning ProDesign’s demise. In fact, he says the debut issue of Interior did very well from an advertising point of view, a result he says effectively “justifies all the reasoning” put towards ending ProDesign and instead focusing on interior design.

Publisher Parul Sheopuri echoes that very same sentiment, describing it as a “positive move on AGM's part, especially in a commercially challenging publishing environment”.

“Feedback from the industry has been terrific. It's great to see that our investment in the commercial interiors sector has been so warmly welcomed," he says.

As for the state of New Zealand commercial interior design, Barrett reckons it’s pretty healthy with no shortage of material for the magazine, citing the Q Theatre in Auckland and the Auckland Art Gallery as two great examples of Kiwi interior design.

“The trick is to balance coverage of smaller interior design projects with the bigger ones,” he says.

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